


Knights Don’t Leave At Dawn Princess

by Nyankittypug



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged up characters, Amity has a secret, Angst, Anxiety, F/F, Fluff, I hope it is satisfactory lol, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Luz got that trauma bro, Luz has a secret, Not my AU! thank you wraps._ on Instagram for letting me write this, Panic Attacks, Useless Lesbian Amity Blight, Will add more tags when needed, also very few curse words, it wouldn't have been written by me wihtout it, knight!Luz, princess!Amity, rated teen cause, they're like 17 in this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 13,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26399428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyankittypug/pseuds/Nyankittypug
Summary: Amity is one of the crown princesses of the Blight Empire, and heir to the throne despite being the youngest of her siblings. One day she gets caught skipping her classes and gets assigned an escort, but something is strange about them. For starters, they're human, and despite being turned into a knight they act nothing like the other guards of the empire, at least, not when they are alone with Amity...(Thanks again wraps._ for letting me write with your AU!)(On hold is time I am a sleepy owl)
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & King & Luz Noceda, Luz Noceda & Owlbert, Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 104
Kudos: 602





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Updates every Friday! Gonna keep a schedule with this! (also sorry, not a one shot! very sleepy while posting this and forgot to click the more chapters button, goodnight lol I got school in the morning)

The Boiling Isles was a rough place, that was a give in with their boiling rain that would burn through your clothes if you got caught in it, or the general cut throat attitude of its population, whether they were sentient or not. You had to learn to survive and take care of yourself quickly, everyone knew that. Of course, there were still good things about the boiling isles, like the plants that may have been poisonous before boiling them and turning them into a sweet syrup perfect for any special occasion. Or the familiarity of the people who lived around each other. Everyone knows everyone, and while things usually solve themselves through the simple “what’s in it for me?” method, everyone noticed the simple things. The set of old shoes left on a crumbling porch for a child whose parents couldn’t afford to get new ones for them, or a farmer lowering their prices or offering special deals and brushing it off as having a good harvest. A stranger pulling you into an ally to keep the ever rushing guards from trampling you and only lightly patting you down to see how much you have on you, if only to see if they could scam you out of a couple extra snails rather than flat out rob you when the armored witches finished passing by. 

True the Boiling Isles could be ruthless, but it could also be kind. The island was magic after all, made on and in and even under the skeleton of a titan, but that's besides the point. If you’re here then you probably want to hear more about the head of the government, so have you ever heard of a monarchy? Oh yes, perhaps in another universe the Boiling Isles would be ruled over by someone with far too much power and an iron fist. 

It wouldn’t be too far off from this one here either, except it was ruled by two. Mr and Mrs Blight, Emperor and Empress Blight, “Your majesty please oh no!” were just some of their more common names, even if the last one was yelled  _ to  _ them rather than being a name actually. The patriarch and matriarch of the family were both cruel, calculating, cold and manipulative. They were perfectionists in every sense of the word, but ten times more unforgiving, and perhaps even more unstable. 

Of course, not all the Blight’s were bad. In fact, despite them fearing their parents the most out of everyone, the Blight children were probably the best. The twins were almost always a sight for sore eyes, sneaking out when they could and causing trouble for everyone around them. It always brought, no matter how small, a smile to everyone’s face, at least until their mischief started but they were always good by helping out every now and then as an apology. 

They were fun, teaching the children games and using their illusion magic to weave stories of their parents throne room, mostly lies or far fetched tall tales of course, nobody wanted to hear about how the widow’s husband was dragged away by his feet as he begged for mercy, or of a guard whose armor was on crooked and got both his legs broken before being thrown out. 

No one was safe, especially the ruler’s children. Edric and Emira could have told plenty of truthful stories of their parents manipulation, their cold stares and over the moon expectations. The only one of the three siblings that could even come close to touching them was their little sister, Amity Blight, the one their parents had so far deemed worthy to take the throne. 

Amity was quiet and snooty around anyone who was near her whenever she wasn’t holed up in her room or the library or even the kitchen. It wasn’t that she was  _ actually  _ snooty, in fact she hated every sense of the word, but somehow everything she did her parents seemed to know by dinner. Every single part of her day, every little detail whether it be what kind of sweet she learned from the cooks that day or what page number she left off on in her book. 

She figured it was her teacher, Lilith Clawthorn, who kept such a close eye on her to be able to give all of the information to Amity’s parents, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it was the entirety of the guard in on it or all of the staff for that matter. Lilith was her best bet though, and one of her best friends. As long as she was good, nothing really bad would happen. 

But then, one day she went down to the garden, thinking that she had properly snuck away from her teacher to see Willow. Willow and her dads were gardeners, and despite the fact that Amity’s parents had once told her that if she were to hang around the girl they would cast her and her family out, her and Willow still made time to see each other. They had to stick together, they were friends, and friends didn’t leave friends because some bullies told them to, at least that’s what Willow had said a week after the Blights uttered the threat. 

Now she’s on her knees in her parents’ throne room, the overglorified chairs standing tall and towering over the girl as she stares at the ground later that very same day. “Amity, my dear daughter, rise. It is unbefitting to be seen on the floor,” her father’s voice reaches her ears, sending a fearful chill down her body as she stands up. She is anything but dear to him and she knows it as she feels the thought coursing through her body and she forces herself to meet his eyes when he tells her to look at him.

He’s cloaked in shadow but she knows just where she’s looking, knows that while she may be holding her father’s gaze, rather he is holding her’s, her mother will watch like a hawk. Waiting for any weakness to show. Amity clasps her hands together to keep them from shaking. “You know why you are here Amity,” he finally speaks up and Amity sputters back to life. “Yes father.” “And can you tell me why you have been brought here?” He demands questioningly. 

His voice isn’t soft, it isn’t a whisper but he isn’t speaking loud either. It’s almost ethereal as it sinks through her and makes her want to cower and she knows that if the guards actually showed any emotion they would be too. But she’s a Blight, and she’s supposed to take the throne. Amity straightens her back and forces her voice to be steady, fear getting pushed to the back of her mind. “I was in the garden.” She says carefully.

“And?” Her father continues after a beat of silence. “And I wasn’t supposed to be in the garden, I apologize father. I should have been in the library studying spells and researching abomination magic.” She breathes out, almost sighing in relief when she sees her father nod in the shadows. She hadn’t been caught with Willow, she’s glad she’s able to catch the sigh and instead replaces it with a little celebratory pinch to her wrist. 

“Yes, and since you can’t seem to stay where you belong, we are assigning you an escort.” Her father spoke, snapping his fingers as a girl clad in armor walked over. She looked familiar, but Amity just couldn’t put her finger on where she had seen the girl before. The whole thing felt strange, she had expected her father to challenge her to a witch's duel, or for him to order several guards to attack her and not permit her to leave until every last one of them was dead. 

Amity didn’t even have enough time to register just how unfair that was (Edric and Emira snuck out  _ at least  _ twice a week!), even if it was a little tame to what she had been expecting, before the knight bent the knee by her side. “This will be your escort, you might remember her from a few years ago. It was your teacher’s sister’s apprentice before we took care of her.” Amity looked from her father to the knight before her with a fear stricken face. 

_ That’s _ why the girl looked so familiar, Amity had been standing right beside her father when he turned her mentor to stone and when he ordered the guards to take the girl to the dungeon upon realizing she could do magic, separating them before in front of Amity a day before he turned the woman. It’s hard to believe that she was standing right there beside Amity, a blank look on her face. A hunk of clay already molded, just waiting to be given a purpose. 

“It has been getting trained by that fool Bumps, but at least now it takes commands like a good little pet. It has memorized your entire schedule, day in and day out. It will wait outside of your room at night and stand in the same room as you during your studies,  _ except  _ when your teacher is teaching you magic. We wouldn’t want it to learn anything that might give it ideas, now would we?” 

Amity didn’t need to be able to see her father’s face to know he was smirking. She felt sick to her stomach as she watched the girl out of the corner of her eye, careful not to break eye contact with the power hungry man before her. “Yes father, I’m sure she will prove useful in keeping me in check,” and with that she knows she is dismissed.

Even though she wants to sprint out of the room, she walks gracefully out. The sound of leather clad footsteps behind her make her grit her teeth, but she continues walking until she reaches the library where she quickly ducks into the room and locks the door behind the human girl. 

“What is your name? What did my parents do to you? Are you an illusion?” Amity began questioning, anxiety tumbling through her stomach before the knight burst out laughing. “I-I’m sorry Princess, I couldn’t hold it in any longer,” the girl says before running a gloved hand through her hair. “Wow, okay you have a lot of questions. Hi, my name is Luz Noceda, your parents tried casting some obedience magic on me, and no,” Luz holds her arm out for Amity to poke.

“I am not an illusion,” she finishes with a smile once Amity has poked her. She can’t help but be cautious however as she pulls her arm back, both the girls actually. “Tried?” Amity asks cautiously, Luz isn’t acting like  _ any  _ of the guards in the castle, and Amity is fairly sure they’re all much more powerful witches than her. Luz freezes up, recognizing the mistake she has made the moment Amity asks.

Her palms get sweaty and her chest and throat tighten up. “I-I mean, their sp-spell only works whenever I am around them! Y-you know, so I don’t take revenge f-for my mentor!” She says nervously, hoping that Amity will buy the lie. 

But it makes enough sense to the Princess, it would explain why Luz was so obedient and blank up until now, and if anything she could research obedience spells in the little spare time she has. “Oh, okay...um, I’m going to go to my room now.” She says tentatively, unlocking the door and stepping out. Sure enough, the moment they are in the hallway Luz is once again a soldier, an orphan of war, stone faced and just putting one foot in front of the other. 

Completely different to how she was just acting. They don’t speak at all on their way to Amity’s room, and Luz takes her position at Amity’s door, avoiding the questioning gaze Amity sends her way as she closes her door behind her and sinks to the floor with a sigh. 

This is going to be a lot of work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz schools Lilith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smol chapter but I might start posting twice a week

It had been a week since Amity had been assigned her escort and she was going  _ crazy _ . Between her studies, her siblings always messing with her, and the human that was little more than one of the abominations she summoned every day, Amity had little to no time to herself at all. Every safe space she had once had was now ruined simply because Amity knew the human had memorized her schedule and would know if they weren’t supposed to be somewhere. The kitchen? No, that was a dirty little pleasure she was lucky enough to have for as long as she did. The library? Nope, no more secretly reading Azura books or books on other types of magic rather than the textbooks she was supposed to keep up with. The garden? She hadn’t even tried, too terrified of getting her friend in trouble to even try. Maybe it would have been fine if she wasn’t so nervous around the other girl who had yet to talk since that brief moment Amity had locked them both up in the library. Well, she had yet to talk to Amity. There was this one time that Amity had been writing in her diary late into the night the day before and could have sworn she had heard whispering coming from outside her door. 

She didn’t know who the human was talking to, because when she opened the door to see what was going on, the girl was stoic once more and didn’t even turn to look at her. “Sorry, thought I heard something,” Amity had muttered lamely and quietly shut the door behind her. She could have sworn she heard Luz sigh in relief. Amity couldn’t get the whole thing out of her head. Who had the girl been talking to? Was it her father? Her mother? Had another guard stopped to talk to her? No, no that was ridiculous. Her father and mother would have summoned the girl to their throne room and none of the guards ever talked. But that didn’t stop Amity’s mind from wandering during her lessons. 

She heard Lilith sigh in frustration as she looked up from her textbook. It seemed Amity’s teacher was trying to brew a potion today while she was having Amity review over her notes and was failing just as miserably at it as Amity was with focusing. Amity opened her mouth to speak but closed it hesitantly, Lilith was one of the most powerful witches she knew, she didn’t need her help with a potion. So for the next few minutes Amity listened to the string of muttered curses and slightly muffled growling before someone spoke up beside her, causing her to nearly fall out of her seat. 

She had forgotten that Luz was inside the classroom with them today since she wouldn’t be able to secretly learn magic, and apparently so did the girl as she immediately closed her mouth and went bright pink after saying, “You’re supposed to use dried honeycomb and crushed tiger pearls before stirring it clockwise for six seconds and county clockwise every two for four.” Lilith scowled at her but didn’t say anything before doing as the human suggested. To Amity and her teacher’s surprise, it worked. The potion turned a sweet honey color and made the room smell like the forest and the coast. 

“How did you know that?” Lilith questioned carefully, soaking in the image of the girl before her. Luz stood up straighter and winced as she stuttered while saying, “My mentor taught me a little about potions.” Apparently that wasn’t a good enough answer however and Amity couldn’t help but feel pity for the girl. It was obvious it was a sore spot for the escort, but still, her very own mentor pushed on, walking out from behind her cauldron to step a few feet away from the other girl. Lilith crossed her arms as she stared down the teen. The girl was skinny, her clothes were a little baggy but not too much so to limit her combat capabilities. Lilith clocked the sword on her hip immediately. Not only was the girl’s hair disheveled and looked as if she had missed more than a few meals, but her eyes were dark and she had bags. Whoever was this child’s mentor had obviously not been taking care of her. 

“And who is your mentor?” Lilith asked, her voice having a little bite, not only due to the girl’s mistreatment but also for being shown up by a stranger in front of her own apprentice. 

The girl visibly paled despite the tanned coloring of her skin, her jaw clenched and she balled up her fists, but other than that she seemed to go stoic again to Amity’s disappointment. “My mentor  _ was _ Eda Clawthorne. She hasn’t been my mentor for many years. Princess I believe your studies were supposed to conclude two minutes ago.” Luz said, turning to look at Amity as she ignored the look of mixed emotions striking across her face. 

This was the girl her sister had abandoned by dying? She had heard that her sister’s apprentice had been taken away and kept in the castle but she had never sought the girl out, she didn’t want to be questioned about it, and she also didn’t want to see whatever remained of Edalyn engraved into the girl. She didn’t want to know if the girl had adopted any of Edalyn’s ticks or personality traits, any of her ideals or fashion ideas, or any rotten opinion her sister might have had of her that she had passed on to the girl. 

As Amity and Luz round the corner they both see Lilith slip out of the classroom. 

Luz can’t help but think it’s about time she visit Eda. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn a little bit more about Luz's time in captivity, as well as some other secrets...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nope def not posting twice a week sorry lol but now I'm going to be posting one chapter every week for five stories instead of two so yeah lol
> 
> also sorry this took so long to upload, I had some really bad indecision on this chapter and rewrote it multiple times before finally sticking to this version, I hope you all like it

_ 11:30: Amity is to study in the library _

_ She looks bored _ , Luz can’t help but think. It’s been a month since the incident in Lilith’s classroom. She has a pounding headache, she hadn’t been able to collect enough ink to make a good enough counter charm to repel the constant mind control spells that were consistently being spread and cast throughout the castle. Luz hadn’t exactly figured out how it worked but she thought about it like a spiderweb, each guard, soldier, clone (they had earned the nickname by looking so alike in their uniforms it was nearly impossible to tell them apart from one another), whatever you wanted to call them, they all had one thing in common as far as Luz could tell, and they were all connected by it. Mind control. Luz thought, no, she  _ knew  _ she was the only one who wasn’t currently being affected by it that was supposed to be. She subtly moved her hands behind her back to mask their shaking as she had to help the charm fight against the spell, well charm would be the wrong word for it, but it sounded cooler to Luz and she was the only one that used it anyway so what did it matter? 

_ It doesn’t, submit to us, listen to us, serve the mistress.  _

_ No thanks _ , Luz thought to herself dryly,  _ I’m fine having freewill, thanks for offering though _ . Amity yawned and Luz couldn’t stop her body from repeating the action, causing her to blush a little when Amity looked up at her with wide eyes. Amity looked around, leaning her chair back to look at the desk where the librarian was supposed to be sitting. Bumps was nowhere to be seen so she leaned in close to the table, scooting her chair forward. 

“Are you under the spell?” She whispered quietly and Luz couldn’t help but give her a nervous smile, gulping in fear before seeing Amity smirk and tap the table in front of her. Liz grimaced but looked around before hesitantly pulling out the chair in front of it and sitting in front of the other girl. “Hi,” Luz said quietly, bringing her hand up to do a little wave. 

“You don’t speak for an entire week and the first thing you say is ‘hi’?” Amity asks and Luz blushes again, rubbing the back of her neck. She nods, and Amity sighs. “Do you not  _ want  _ to talk?” She asks and Luz looks at her with wide eyes. “Of course I want to talk!” She slaps her hands over her mouth, looking around nervously before slightly opening them up, “I’m not supposed to talk,” she whispers.

Amity giggles at her antics and Luz smiles hesitantly. Amity hadn’t hurt her yet, so maybe she was okay. And besides, Bumps didn’t let guards in the library unless he was forced to, especially whenever Luz was in there. He had known Eda and had helped the woman and her apprentice many times before they were taken and she had suffered her fate. He would bring her books on his days off, sometimes bringing along the gardeners’ child Willow and the messenger’s boy Gus who had both grown fond of Luz. It broke his heart the day he heard the news of her fate. He had been in the hallway when they dragged her away, and had watched as the guards separated them, both screaming for each other and reaching for one another as they got dragged down opposite sides of the hallway. He was stuck, frozen in the middle of the hallway, looking back and forth between the two while the doors of the throne room stayed open, the king, queen, and their children (who were being forced to watch) watching the pair become separated. 

Bumps could still remember the way Luz screamed, kicking and punching and doing everything she could to try and reach for Eda’s outstretched transformed hand. He could hear Eda yelling at her, telling her to get out as quick as she could and to run away with King and Owlbert, that she was sorry she got her wrapped up in this mess. 

Bumps turned looking between the two, but held his ground, unable to do anything that would make any part of this situation better. He and the fourteen year old Luz were forced to watch as Eda disappeared behind the other corner first. Luz would never see her again. 

“Would you prefer to write instead?” Amity asks and Luz nods eagerly, the bobbing of her head making her eyes a little slow to take in Amity’s movement as Luz has to settle herself. Amity brings out a leather bound book with pristine pages and a sword design imprinted on the cover. 

Luz reaches out to touch it but Amity opens the book and slides it over to the other girl, handing her a quill and ink.  _ Okay Amity, this is your chance. Don’t ask anything ridiculous, remember we need to find out who she’s been talking to _ , Amity thinks to herself. “What kind of magic do you do?” She blurts out and Luz stiffens, her eyesight becoming wavy as a thin sheet of tears blocks it. 

**I don’t do magic.** She writes back, her writing is a messy sprawl of letters that take a while to be written down and Amity briefly wonders why she would lie before remembering exactly what she was talking to. But, her father had kept her because he said she could do magic. 

She doesn’t realize she’d said it out loud until she looks down at Luz’s next sentence.  **I’m not allowed to do magic.** “Well, I mean, yeah obviously, but what were you able to do?” She can see Luz transitioning from the crying she was about to do to a nervous kind of distrust. 

**Your father’s...** **_men_ ** **already questioned me. You won’t get anything new out of me. I’ve told everything I know.** She’s glaring at Amity now and Amity realizes her mistake. “Oh.  _ Oh _ , oh I’m not trying to- no I didn’t- I’m not asking you to give away your secrets. I’m not questioning you for my parents, I swear.” She says, lifting her hands up in surrender and Luz settles to take her glare down to a more of a distrusting look. 

Suddenly a hand plops down onto Luz’s head and ruffles her hair, her face lighting up with a bright smile before grimacing and touching her temple. “I hope she isn’t bothering you princess, this one has a mind of her own. It’s okay Luz, you can trust Amity. She’s participated in her fair share of rebellion against her parents, of course not as much as her brother and her sister. Or myself I suppose,” Bumps says, a soft smile on his face as he sets an apple in front of Luz. 

The girl snatches it up and eats it quicker than Amity could imagine. “Thanks Bumps,” she says in between bites. Amity blinks in surprise. “You two know-“ but then she remembers that her father told her he had made Bumps train Luz into obedience, “You were supposed to make her obedient.” She says with a questioning narrow of her eyes. 

Luz backs up and Bumps puts a hand on her shoulder. “Princess, you’re smart. Take a second and think,” he says and Amity nods. Bumps and Luz are friendly, too friendly for her to have met him as her obedience teacher. He had often brought Willow and her friend Gus out with him on his off days. She knew because she’d watched them leave every single time through the window of her room. Willow wouldn’t tell her where they went, but she promised that it wasn’t because she didn’t want to, it was because she couldn’t.

Amity had been mad at that but let it go a while ago. It’s not like she could stop Willow from going, and her friend was miserable in the castle anyways. “You knew the Owl Lady!” Amity yells in realization and Luz flinches, her face falling but a sad smile appearing as she stares at the notebook in front of her. Bumps nods, “I used to be her teacher, before your parents became the emperor and empress. I loved teaching, well, I loved not teaching Eda. She was more than a handful,” he chuckles.

“Here, we can talk more but first we need that ink,” Bumps says and Luz nods her head up and down quickly. Amity is confused but pushes it closer to Luz who snatches it up and rushes down an aisle of books a few feet away, out of sight of the two. “What’s the ink for?” Amity asks and Bumps smirks proudly. “Magic of course. None that you would ever study, but magic nonetheless.” 

Amity is stunned into silence trying to figure out what kind of magic would need Luz to use ink and that she had never heard of before. “Thanks Amity, you are a life saver,” Luz says as she walks back over to them and sighs before she plops down into the chair in relief, finally not having to help fight against those stupid spells the “mistress” (if Luz ever meets her she swears she’s gonna knock her upside the head) casts. 

She was finally Luz Noceda, not even partly one of the clones Eda had taught her how to avoid. “Hi, sorry, those mind spells are a pain. Thanks for the ink.” Luz says with a bright smile she looks up at Bumps pleadingly who rolls his eyes good naturedly and walks away. “Okay, now that that’s done trying to mold my answers, what do you want to know?” She asks and Amity stutters in surprise. 

“Really?” She asks and Luz nods. “Bumps says I can trust you.” Amity’s eyebrows go up in surprise but she pushes it aside and instead slowly asks, “What kind of magic can you do?” Luz freezes up. Her eyes are filled with fear and she sinks into herself as she remembers the cold floor of the dungeon in the winter and the hot sticky way it felt in the summer, the feeling of her bones pushing against her skin as her stomach howled in outrage from not being fed. That’s how they originally tried to break her, with starvation and dehydration and the weather outside transforming the dungeon into a new discomfort every day.

It only ended up with Luz crawling through the bars of her window when she realized she was thin enough and making it halfway to the gate. Her small malnourished body couldn’t handle anymore than that and she had collapsed. Bumps wasn’t yet assigned to her, he wouldn’t be assigned to her until after Emperor Blight took his turn trying to break her. Emphasis on  _ try _ . 

He was nearly successful, he had beaten Luz within an inch of her life, electrocuted her while she stood waist deep in a pool of water, drowned her, and even had her run through the catacombs under the castle. They weren’t so much as used for religion anymore seeing as how they hadn’t been used in years before they had sent Luz running down them while they sent dogs and guards after her. She had scars on her arms and legs, some on her torso too, of course, they’ve shrunk stretched from their original sizes since they had first taken shape, and she’s glad for it too. It had taken him finally giving up out of outrage and his wife casting a mind control spell on her to get his answers. They were stupid questions too like, 

_ What was your mentor plotting?  _ Nothing.

Or, 

_ Why haven’t you used your magic yet?  _ I can’t.

_ Why can’t you?  _ I don’t have the materials.

_ What are you planning?  _ Nothing.

_ Why did she keep you around?  _ She loved me.

_ Do you even still wish to live?  _ No.

That’s when they assigned Bumps to her, nearly a year after she had initially been captured. She hadn’t recognized him at first, and it broke his heart seeing her frail thin body laying on the floor, her sunken in eyes staying fixated on the ceiling without seeing anything. He had heard of the torture she went through and had brewed healing potions and had brought her food. It took her a month to finally recognize him. He had brought her a book, like he used to do and he saw a twinkle light up in her eyes as she began to cry. They ended up sobbing and holding each other, and he was the one who had to tell her of Eda’s fate. He trained Luz, taught her how to pretend she was under a spell, brought her food and books and showed her how to use a sword.

She went through knight training when he had finally been able to convince the empress and emperor that he had broken her into obedience. Even now he was fighting to get her a more worthy job (“ _ She went through a year of training _ ” “ _ Let Princess Amity leave the castle, her escort is more than capable of keeping her in check _ ” “ _ Your people grow distrustful of your heir, they’ve never met her, allow the human to protect them and let them both visit the nearby village _ ”).

“Luz? Luz are you there?” Amity breaks her out of the memories, the conversations, the need to get out of her now better fitting purple colored cloth armor. “Yes, yes I’m here. I’m sorry Princess, can we stay away from the topic of my magic?” She asks apologetically and Amity nods. 

They talk the entire time, Bumps occasionally bringing Luz food and drink, to which the girl never turns down. Luz has fun, true uninterrupted fun, for the first time in three years. Maybe Princess Amity is a better person than her distrust in people made her believe.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luz and Amity get some freedom and the king acts a little strange

“Daughter, it has come to my attention that perhaps your escort is more  _ capable _ than we might have thought.” His voice sends fearful chills down Amity’s back. 

Amity hadn’t expected for her father to address her at the breakfast table (a long dark rectangle with stiff chairs where he sat at one end and her mother to his right), it surprised her so much that she nearly dropped her fork. Luz was standing stock still against the wall behind Amity’s chair, she hadn’t made any movement or sign that she was in any sort of control ( _ maybe she had never been? What if she was just a puppet? Was this all a plot to see who rebelled against her parents? _ ) but Amity didn’t expect her to. 

She gulped and nodded at her father, hoping that he wasn’t expecting a verbal confirmation that she was listening to him. Amity could feel her heart in her throat as he continued on, “It has also come to my attention that it would help you in your studies,” Amity hopes her surprise doesn’t show in her face as she wonders what in the name of the titan was that supposed to mean, “if you were allowed a certain amount of time outside of the walls,” Amity tries not to look at him strangely as his eye twitches and his voice becomes rough when he continues, “as well as outside of the castle itself during your free time.” 

Amity clocks the look her mother gives her father but pushes it aside as her eyes go wide and she tries to keep her calm. “Thank you father, it would be most helpful.” She says and he doesn’t say anything more than that, his face going back to its normal steely gaze while her mother continued to eat in silence. Whatever had happened was over, and Amity shared one glance with her siblings before they returned to eating in silence. 

“Okay, follow this map and the trail I made for you, the herbs you will be collecting shouldn’t be too far off of it. If anything happens, leave immediately and return.” Lilith says, she stands straight and looks directly at Amity but the girl isn’t blind when Lilith slips a pad of paper and a pencil into Luz’s hands. 

Amity doesn’t know how exactly to leave, she had never been outside of the walls of the castle before, so she nods and turns around as she exits out of a side door in the walls. She looks around for a moment until she sees the trail and begins to go into the forest. She’s so unused to the novelty of not being watched by her parents or being herded from one thing to the other that she has no idea what she’s supposed to be doing or where she’s meant to be going.

She’s so forgetful that she even forgets Luz is still behind her when the girl ever so slowly looks over her shoulder and sees Amity’s map. “You should keep walking Princess Amity,” Luz’s voice is calm and it sends a shiver down Amity’s back as she thinks for just a second that maybe her parents  _ are  _ watching her.

Until Luz starts laughing and saying she’s sorry and that that was a mean trick to play on Amity. The girl huffs and blushes in embarrassment. “You know that if I wanted to I could tell my mother and father about how you cancel their spells?” Amity says, her voice coming out as a stutter while Luz comes down from her laughing fit. 

“I know, but you wouldn’t,” Luz scratches the back of her neck before looking away, “right?” The word is so pitiful, so softly spoken and filled with so much trust that Amity’s eyes widen in surprise and she doesn’t trust herself to speak. Instead she turns around and opens her map again. 

“C’mon, the first herb is right ahead.” 

They’ve been in the forest for an hour. Luz giggles every time Amity complains about the heat or the bugs or how dirty she’s getting but Luz knows she’s loving the freedom. In her own special, high and mighty “I must not show compassion or emotions” way. The princess tried to follow the directions she remembered from all the potion books she had read but it turns out she’s not very good at gardening. 

“Princess, this is the third plant you’ve murdered.” Luz snickers behind the girl as she groans and glares at Luz over her shoulder. “You do it then!” The girl yells and stands up, shoving the pair of gardening scissors into her hands and crossing her arms. Luz shrugs and looks around, her eyes raking over the forest as she clocks the plant they need. 

She walks over to it and gets down on her knees as she checks the plant first for disease and bugs, which it is free of both. When she’s thoroughly looked over it though, she stands up and moves on to the next patch, which is ripe with disease (she digs it up and has Amity set it on fire before moving on), after that the next batch is covered in bugs that eat through it. But just a few yards away is another stalk of the herb. Luz gets on her knees once more, gently lifting the leaves to look at their underbellies and tracing a finger down the stalk as she checks for any imperfections.

It’s perfect, not too young like the first, not dying of illness like the second, and not being devoured like the third. Amity watches her impatiently, so far unimpressed and confused. Luz brings the scissors over before stopping and turning to look at Amity, she pays the spot on the ground next to her and the girl huffs, rolling her eyes, before sitting down. “What? Ready to admit you don’t know what you’re doing?” She asks once she’s sitting. 

“Nope. I just remembered you’re supposed to be learning,” Luz smirks and then brings the scissors up to use as a pointer. She pushes a leaf up to show Amity what she had seen. “Okay so you see that little line running down the middle? Yeah okay good, so you can tell how old the plant is by looking at that, the first one was too young, its little line barely reached the middle of the leaf,” Luz explains and Amity raises an eyebrow. “It was just as tall as this one though,” she argues.

Luz nods but moves closer, using her free hand to bring Amity’s over to the leaf to stroke the line with a finger. “Okay, so with this plant you can tell it’s age by how far its little line reaches, the other one was barely even half way, and this one is just right you see how it reaches the tip of the leaf? If it goes any further than that it’ll start to become poisonous so it’s best if we harvest it now.” Luz explains and moves her hand from Amity’s to gently hold the leaf while she shows Amity how to properly snip it.

It takes a lot longer than either of them expected to gather all of the herbs and ingredients. They’re barely finished and already four hours in and Amity can’t keep a smile off of her face and neither can Luz as she points out different herbs and their uses and Amity points out the ones she recognizes from books. A little while in Amity realized her parents couldn’t watch her here in the woods and she had laughed in disbelief. Freedom felt good. She and Luz got a little distracted as they relished Amity’s newfound freedom, making competitions to see who could get the ingredients the fastest (they tied), or who could throw rocks the farthest (Luz won), or who knew more about magic (Amity won). At one point Luz climbed a tree and slipped and fell, landing with an “ _ oof! _ ” onto the ground and laughing as she sat up and Amity fussed over her. 

“ _ You better not be brain damaged! _ ” Amity had yelled as she smacked Luz’s shoulder. “ _ Bleh, I’m brain damaged. _ ” Luz had replied, sticking her tongue out and going dead eyed. “ _ You’re so weird, come on, we gotta finish _ ,” was what Amity had said. Luz had pretended to be “brain damaged” for a little longer until she nearly stepped on a frog and picked it up, immediately stopping and staring at the frog. 

“What’s wrong?” Amity asked and Luz’s face fell, whatever idea or feeling that had come with the frog was gone now. Luz crouched down and watched as it hopped away ( _ follow them, what are you doing? you could escape right now _ ). “Nothing, I just...I don’t know,” she says, a thousand yard stare in her eyes as Amity tells her they should keep going. 

Luz was lost in her thoughts, walking and keeping up but not entirely there. She was racking her mind,  _ what was so important about that frog? _ She didn’t know. “Hey Luz, look it’s a lake!” Amity says and Luz shakes herself out of it with a smile. “Oh yeah, hey how much time do you think we have left?” She asks and Amity shrugs, “I don’t know, maybe half an hour? Why?” 

Luz starts unbuttoning her top and shakes it off as she starts taking off her boots. “Because, there is nothing better than a bath and swimming is as close as you can get,” she says as she throws off her pants. Amity blushes, “ _ Luz _ ! What if we’re late?” Luz stops and turns to look at Amity, walking back up to her and taking her hand. “Then I’ll take the blame. You deserve to have some fun princess,” she says good heartedly. 

Amity sighs and nods, refusing to take off her dress but takes off her boots. Luz shouts out a cry of triumph and sprints to jump into the water. She sticks her head out and spits water as she laughs merrily. Amity laughs at her antics but furrows her eyes as the water starts to turn a little black. 

“Hey Luz? Isn’t your tank top supposed to be white?” Amity asks as she sees it soak up the black as well. Luz grips her head and groans in pain. 

Amity wishes she knew how to swim.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to the castle they must go

The water feels nice as Luz moves in it. It makes her stomach tumble and clench in nervousness from memories of the different types of water toture the emperor put her through, but Luz has always loved swimming and he can’t take that away from her. She’s laughing and kicking her legs and pushing her arms through the water and sinking down to dig her toes and fingers through the mud at the bottom before coming back up. It feels so good that Luz ignores the whispers that start back up in her head, pushing them away in favor of enjoying the water.

Then Amity speaks up a few minutes into Luz playing around and Luz stops to think.  _ White? Yeah, my tank top is white _ , she thinks to herself before looking around. There’s black in the water but it’s probably just mud from the bottom of the lake. “It’s alright! It’s just mud,” she says but starts getting out anyways. She doesn’t feel good, but she’s probably just hungry. The only time she’s been able to eat are when Bump was able to sneak her food, but now she’ll definitely be able to get more food since Amity is in on it all and she has to go to the library three times a week, well.

It’ll be twice a week now since she’s supposed to go into the forest during that time now, but still! Luz is happy. She’s getting fed, _she’s_ _useful_ , and Princess Amity is having fun. Maybe Amity will be her friend? Luz would like that. She misses her friends, but Amity would be a great friend. “Are you sure it’s okay?” Amity asks, there’s a worried look on her face and Luz nods. “Yeah it’s all good, I’ll have to walk like this until we get close to the castle though or else I’ll get my armor wet.” She says as she starts gathering the protective cloth in her arms. 

She gives Amity a smile, bumping her shoulder against the princess’s. “I didn’t know that Princess Amity was such a worry-wart,” she teases to brighten the mood, giving the green haired girl a slick grin. Amity huffs and starts walking and Luz thinks she might’ve pushed it too far until Amity calls out from in front of her, “And I didn’t know leeches liked human blood.”

Luz didn’t really have leeches on her, but Amity didn’t tell her that until they were almost back to the castle. The entire encounter almost made up for the fact that she had to return to the tall cramped walls. Almost. “Are you coming Princess?” Luz asks, she stands uniformly with her back straight and her hand resting on the hilt of her sword (which was where it normally was placed anyway) but her eyes betray her deceiving stance and look. 

They’re caring and warm and Amity is surprised at how  _ welcoming  _ they are. So much so that she almost forgets to respond when she realizes that she had been standing disobediently at the forest edge. She nods but doesn’t say anything, too afraid of tripping over her words so close to where her parents resided. Luz falls in line behind her as they walk over to the side gate they exited from. “You are late,” Lilith comments and Amity hides her palms behind her back to hide their clamminess. 

“I apologize, it took me longer to collect the ingredients properly than I anticipated. I will stop by the library before bed to gather books on botany and conduct more research,” she says. She doesn’t propose what she wants to, doesn’t ask to be allowed to visit the gardens to “learn the proper way to collect ingredients,” no, no that would be pushing it. 

She’s surprised enough her father allowed her to leave the walls of the castle itself, she shouldn’t become greedy. She’ll find a way to visit Willow soon. “It is fine, the Emperor permitted you to have an hour of free time inside the walls, you have thirty minutes left. I would recommend you use it to head to your room to get cleaned up. Your escort has been ordered to go to the throne room.” Lilith settles her eyes on Luz with a flicker of defiance, a look caught between pity and triumph and grief caught on the older woman’s face. 

Luz doesn’t say anything but Amity fears they’ve been caught. She nods but doesn’t move. Lilith raises an eyebrow and sighs but turns around to escort Luz away, giving Amity the opportunity she needed to give Luz a reassuring nod. Luz nods back before looking away, shutting herself down. 

Step one, steady her heartbeat. She could do this, she’s going to be okay, she’ll be fine. 

They continue to walk, but take a left, heading through uniformly trimmed hedges with perfect flowers rather than the entrance to the castle.

Step two, relax. That’s it, there you go, just keep breathing. She feels a little bit numb but that’s okay, it’s strange but at least it’s helping her look the part. 

They pass two men who stop their work immediately and give soft sad glances Luz’s way. Luz can barely hear what they say in hushed voices under their breaths (“Dear isn’t that a human?” “I believe so,” “You don’t think?” “Oh, oh no. Oh she’s so young, I hope they don’t see each other,” “They’ll be devastated,”).

Luz pays them no mind though, she can’t afford to,  _ she isn’t supposed to _ . Luz shoos that thought away, maybe something was wrong. She doesn’t have time to worry about that though, she has to make sure she’s prepared to hide in plain sight. 

So, step three, hide her eyes. Not literally obviously, but Luz isn’t stupid. The queen watches everyone like a hawk, even the slightest emotion shown could give her away and get her killed. That’s where the relaxation and steady heartbeat come in. 

If she can trick her body, then she can hopefully trick herself. She closes her eyes, breathes in a deep breath and holds it. One count, two count, three count...eight count, nine count, ten count. Okay, release. She opens her eyes, and something catches them as she walks. She stumbles, her eyes go wide and her jaw goes slack. 

She isn’t relaxed and her heartbeat goes wild while so many emotions flush over her. Joy, hope, and just pure happiness as she sees Willow. But also Sadness and an overwhelming depression and anxiety among other things as her face falls and she watches Willow drop the basket she’s carrying and slaps a hand over her mouth. 

She looks green and Luz thinks she might be sick and she takes a step towards the girl, only to freeze when Lilith clears her throat. “You wouldn’t happen to know each other, would you?” She smirks and Luz feels her eyes well up with tears as she goes to back up and trips, hitting her head on a rock. 

She grunts in pain and gently touches her head as she tries to get back up. “No- I, I-“ she stutters, reaching for words that seem to fall from her grasp. Willow watches with bated breath as Luz’s eyes focus and defocus, her pupils dilating but her eyes welling up with tears as she staggers when she tries to stand. Willow reaches a hand out when Luz stands up, one hand going to rest on her sword and the other staying by her side. She turns and stares forward, her face is rigid and her eye twitches as she waits for orders. Lilith’s grin flickers as she turns to face the witchling. 

“I’d suggest getting back to work, unless you’d care to join us with the Emperor?” Willow shakes her head and takes a few steps back, getting down on her knees to pick up the basket of flowers she had dropped, stealing a forlorn looking glance towards the human as she marches behind Lilith. She needs to get in contact with Amity. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner and a good knock over the head

Amity waited patiently by her desk in her room for Luz to arrive. She knew she should probably start heading to the dining room but she couldn’t help but keep her feet planted where they were as she stared at the door of her room. She had done as Lilith had told her to, going straight to her room while Luz and Lilith made their way through the gardens. Amity had ignored the pang of jealousy that crossed her mix of emotions, she ached to see her only friend (would Luz count as one of her friends? She should probably ask but she didn’t want to come off as desperate, she was a Blight, and Blights were  _ never _ desperate. Even if they were a bit lonely sometimes) maybe she could sneak out of the castle later this week? 

Amity entertained the thought of stealing sheets from rooms and making one long rope to lower herself to the ground, or brewing a potion that would give her spider legs so she could crawl along the ceiling and out the front door, ooh or maybe tricking the twins into casting an illusion copy of herself to trick her parents and disguise herself so she could just walk into the gardens. Maybe when Luz came back she would help Amity escape the castle and cover for her while she headed to the gardens. Maybe she could be illusioned into looking like Luz, wait no that wouldn’t work, she’d be found out immediately. 

Amity sighed, standing up and brushing off her dress (was there even anything to brush off the material? Probably not, but who was going to correct her in the cold empty room?) before walking over to the door. She walked right out, shutting it behind her and jumping upon seeing Luz standing next to the entryway. Luz didn’t glance her way, didn’t say anything or sneak the princess a smile, which was normal given they weren’t alone in the space of the library or in the woods like they had been half an hour prior, but it was still difficult to try and meet Luz’s eye. “Hi Luz,” Amity said quietly under her breath. Luz didn’t respond. Amity inwardly cringed and turned around with a muttered “Okay,” ghosting her lips. She couldn’t help the annoyance spark in her chest, the least the human could do was at least indicate she had heard her. 

Amity goes to take a left, which she would usually do when she was leaving early to go dine with her family, but Luz stops her with a hand on Amity’s wrist. The human’s eye twitches and she drops the princess’s wrist, her hand shaking as she places it back on the hilt of her sword as her face sets again to stone. “You will be late if you go that way Princess Amity.” 

“Oh, thank you?” She doesn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but if Luz notices it she doesn’t mention it. She lets muscle memory carry her the rest of the way to the dining room, breathing in a sigh of relief as she meets her siblings on their way in and notices their parents aren’t there. “Nice babysitter Mittens,” Emira smirks out and Amity’s face flushes with embarrassment. “She’s not my babysitter,” she says and Edric chuckles. “Oh really? We haven’t seen you without her for over a month.” He says and Amity hears the truth dangling on his tongue, the willingness to spill the fact she had been sneaking out before Luz had shown up and that they had caught her. It scared Amity that they would even entertain the thought of admitting it in front of a soldier, whether she was human or not that was what Luz was considered despite her being more of a well prepared escort (which she was but hush) than a soldier. “Funny how I haven’t seen much of you two either lately, maybe mother and father should assign you both escorts as well,” Amity says and Emira smirks. “Harsh, but kudos to you little sister. What’s going on with the human’s eye?” The eldest twin asks and Amity turns to look at Luz. Her eye had been twitchy for a while but now Amity noticed the clenching and unclenching her jaw. 

_ I thought she said she had a spell or something that warded off mind control? Maybe mother and father are too close to her? No, no she only said that once and I’m pretty sure it was a lie, I haven’t found anything on it at least in the books in the library. Maybe her spell partially wore off today in the woods? She does look like she isn’t all there,  _ Amity goes to ask Luz a question before a door at the end of the room closes loudly and the familiar dreadful clacking of her mother’s and father’s shoes echo their way throughout the room. “Children, sit.” Her mother says as they take their seats. 

The siblings don’t hesitate to make their way over to the table, pulling their chairs out and seating themselves. Soon there’s food placed in front of them, hot and delicious despite the room making them feel trapped and cold. Amity can feel her mother’s unwavering gaze on her and she swallows heavily as she picks up her fork, collecting some food onto the utensil before bringing it up to her mouth in an attempt to wordlessly persuade her mother to  _ stop looking at her _ . 

It works and for a blissful ten minutes they eat in silence, Amity keeping in her annoyance (and slight comfort) at the feeling of her brother and sister each keeping a foot over one of her own. “How was the collection of ingredients earlier this evening Amity?” Odalia asks and Amity feels her siblings put a small bit of pressure on her feet. She swallows thickly, the hand hidden in her lap pinching her leg. “It was very educational. I learned a lot about botany. Thank you for the opportunity to learn as much as I did.” Amity says. Prim, proper, just what her mother wants.

The woman doesn’t say anything in return, instead barely inclining her head in agreement. “Your escort’s hair was wet, why is that?” Odalia asks and Amity knows she’s been cornered. “She fell in a lake. It’s why we were late, we had to wait for her clothes to dry.” Amity lies through her teeth, but she hopes her mother does not realize that. “Look at me when you speak girl,” Odalia replies and AMity gently sets her fork down before turning to look at her mother. “Repeat yourself,” She says and Amity does, committing her words to heart and memory. 

Dinner after that was quiet and short, just how Amity preferred it, despite it feeling as if it lasted several hours rather than barely one. She and her siblings had parted paths several hallways before, but despite this Luz still stayed silent. Her eye no longer twitched and her jaw was now not clenched like it had been, but was still far from relaxed. “Princess Amity, I was just looking for you. Follow me if you wouldn’t mind.” Bump says as they pass the library. It was a couple minutes out of the way of Amity’s room but she was hoping to stop by it and get a book to read before bed anyways so she nods when Bump holds the door open for them and rushes them in. “Princess you should be on your way to bed,” Luz says and Bump grimaces. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this but oh well,” He says, shuffling behind his desk a few yards away from the pair of doors as Amity is confused. How had he even known they were on their way already? “I’m sorry, what is it you didn’t want to do?” Amity asks as he bends over and looks for something. 

  
“Don’t worry Princess, it’ll be quick and virtually painless,” he says and stands back up, placing a jar of ink on the counter as he pulls a dagger from his robe. “Woah! Are you going to cut us?” She asks, her eyes blown wide as she backs into Luz. “What? No! No, I’d never- well, I’d  _ try _ to avoid cutting you, I suppose I could never promise to never cut you but I digress.” He says but continues walking his way over to the girls. Luz doesn’t move but Amity prepares to cast a spell as he raises the dagger and tells her to stay still. “What are you doing?” Amity asks before he brings it down. 


	7. Chapter 7

“You could have just told me you were going to knock her out!” Amity grumbles under her breath for the tenth time as Bump looks back and forth between a drawing, copying it to the human girl’s back. “Like I said Princess, if I had said something she was likely to fight me or report to the Queen. At least now we know we can knock her out,” he explains, finishing the last stroke and dot and then shuffling away. “We have to let it dry or else it’ll just become a giant messy painting on her back.” 

Amity nods as the old man walks away, waiting for him to go out of eyesight before walking over to the table Luz was laying on. She walked over to the girl and looked at her face, she couldn’t see much on her back but she didn’t think there would be much to look at anyway. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea stupid,” she mutters but sighs and gently brushed the hair away from Luz’s eyes. 

“Did you at least have fun?” Luz asks groggily, one her eyes creeping open. She has a soft smile on her face that makes Amity blush. “What’re you doing awake? Doesn’t the charm thing have to dry?” Luz laughs and groans, mumbling that she hopes nothing is broken. “Why would something be broken?” Amity asks quietly and Luz sits up, moving by to sit on the edge of the table. 

“Your parents ordered the guards in the throne room to beat the crap out of me,” Luz says and tests the ink on her back with a hand, it’s dry enough, so she wraps her chest binding around her before turning to look at Amity who had turned around out of decency and embarrassment despite Luz being turned the way opposite of her. “First off, it doesn’t have to dry, it’s just better for me if it does. Secondly, I’m awake because I was asleep and now I’m not.” 

Amity rolls her eyes and Luz snickers, turning around and sitting on the other side of the table to face Amity. “Why did they beat you?” She asks after a moment of silence as Luz closes her eyes again and leans back on her hands. Amity’s eyes flicker back and forth from the girl’s torso, taking in the disgusting purple and green bruises on her skin. “I think it’s because my hair was wet. I guess they thought something had happened, and then when they tried to search my mind they couldn’t find anything from the last time it had been taken over. It’s fine, they’ll heal in a while.” 

Luz peeks one eye open and smirks, “Why, you worried about me Princess?” Amity grins and flicks Luz’s forehead. “As if, the only thing I’m worried about is my reputation.” Luz snickers and leans back a little further, tilting her head as she cocks an eyebrow teasingly. “I’m a part of your reputation then? I suppose I should be honored but maybe I should tell everyone about how their princess murdered an entire colony of plants.” 

“Plants aren’t grouped in colonies dummy,” Amity crosses her arms and glares at Luz playfully. “But you didn’t deny me being a part of your reputation,” she says and Amity rolls her eyes. “Whatever makes you sleep at night.” Bump walks back over with a tray of tea and apples, smiling at the girl’s bickering and sighing as he sees the human is okay, if not a bit battered and beaten. “I see you two are getting along,” he jokes as they go back and forth , teasing each other happily. “At least my ears don’t stick out like little antennas,” Luz brings her hands up to the sides of her head, balling them up and sticking her index finger out as she sticks her tongue out. Amity flushes and laughs as she leans over, poking Luz’s forehead as she says, “At least I don’t look like I could fly away, those shoulder pads on your uniform look like little wings.” 

“At least I don’t stay up till two in the morning writing all night.” Luz smirks and Amity goes beet red before beginning to yell at her and telling her to not laugh at her as Luz’s cackles, stuttering the entire time. “Hush children, someone might here. Now come on, drink up, and Luz these apples are for you. Hurry and eat, I don’t want you all to be caught roaming the castle after hours.” The girls nodded, taking their respective cups and meal and sharing a look before laughing softly and smiling into their drinks. 

\--------------------------------

Luz stood guard outside of Amity’s door, yawning and leaning against the wall in the barren hallway. She knew Bump would no longer come to visit her during the night now that he could give her food while she and Amity were in the library. She was tired from her (admittedly small) adventure in the forest and her torso was aching as she stood. She had been standing guard for a few hours now, and if she knew the time she’s be able to tell whether or not her mom would come into her room back on Earth and tell her to go to bed or not, but she was clueless as to how her mother was and to what time it was. Luz’s heart ached at the thought of her mother, so she stood up straighter. A soft pitter patter of someone walking could be heard coming from behind Amity’s bedroom door, her light had been turned off after about an hour of her disappearing behind there for the night and Luz had assumed she was asleep. “Luz?” Amity said softly, she knew Luz was still awake because she had been listening to her yawn for the last four hours now. It was almost midnight, maybe a little after, and Amity had been sleeping restlessly, waking up soon after she fell asleep each time so she had given up on sleep maybe an hour ago. Now she was awake and bored, so she stood up and sat against her door, tentatively questioning if Luz was awake. 

“What’s up Princess?” Luz asked, not moving but keeping her tone soft and welcoming. “Can we just talk for a little while?” Amity says at first and then reluctantly adds, “I can’t sleep.” Luz smiles and leans against the door, sliding down it until she’s sitting on the opposite side. “Sure Princess. We can talk as long as you want.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone if you didn't see the explanation I posted on my Instagram (Nyankittypug_thatficwriter) then just know that basically my power was out for about four or five days so I wasn't able to upload or type or do pretty much anything, plus it wasn't just my house, it was the majority of the town I live in with very few exceptions. and then today I didn't leave my school until a little before seven P.M. so I've only just had the chance to upload this
> 
> Still, I am very sorry you all had to wait so long, thank you for your patience, I hope you enjoy the chapter and have a good day, I'm gonna go try and sleep now

The sound of turning pages and a pen scribbling against a pad of paper could be hear breaking the silence in the library, uncomfortable all around except for one little bubble where Luz and Amity sit, reading in silence and taking notes. “Amity how long have your parents been ruling over the kingdom?” Luz asks, “I think around thirty or forty years, they took over several years before Edric and Emira were born.” She explains without looking up from her notes, determined to get her homework finished. “Took over?” Luz asks, her book closing as she looks up in curiosity. “Yes, they overthrew the old emperor,” she says and Luz’s mind pings with memories of Eda telling her about the ruling of the Boiling Isles. She misses Eda. “Wouldn’t you know about all of this, surely your mentor told you about all of this.” Amity says, finally looking up from her book and notes. 

“Yeah, yeah she did. I just forgot, thanks Amity.” Luz’s eyes are locked in a thousand yard stare, completely off in a different thought, and it looks like they’re glazed over with memories as Amity watches her with a careful eye before returning to the task at hand. 

Luz is lost in thought, chasing memories she forgot like the boo-boo buddy club, or how she’s lactose intolerant (good thing no one ever gave her milk, she thinks to herself) and her mother’s voice. She can’t remember her mother’s voice and it breaks her heart into more pieces than she can count. She can remember certain details, her soft loving eyes with their tired bags (Why was she always tired? Did someone not let her sleep either? Wait, no, no she was a nurse, that’s right), her gentle smile and hugs that make Luz want to cry from not remembering the last one she got. When did she last hug her mother? She was only meant to be gone for a few months, how long had she been gone for? With a horrifying thought, Luz realized she didn’t even know how old she was. 

With shaking hands and quivering breaths, Luz guides herself out of a panic attack. She’s okay, she came here through a portal. The portal is somewhere in the castle. Surely the empress and emperor wouldn’t have destroyed it, she could go home and find her mother. But first she needed to calm down, find the portal, and escape. She would need a plan but that’s okay. She had to find her friends before she escaped. King, she would need King, and Owlbert, she would need Owlbert. She could bring Willow if she agreed, and Gus too. Bump, if he would come. She wouldn’t know where they could all stay, but they could be safe. She could protect them, help them find homes, they could go to a human school (her heart clenched and the word school sent streams of being bullied and beaten up and suspended for just being herself when she was  _ disobedient _ ) and she could see her mother again. If anyone tried to stop her she could fight them, she knew how to use a sword, she could fight her way out of here. She could do it right now. 

“Luz?” Amity’s voice breaks her out of her thoughts and she follows her eyesight to her unsheathed sword. “Oh! Sorry, sorry, my bad.” She says awkwardly and sheathes it, standing up and pushing her chair in. “I think your hour of free time is about to start if you’re finished with your homework.” She says shakily, giving Amity an apologetic smile. 

The other girl gives her a hesitant look, on the verge of questioning her, but gives in and stands up, placing the book back on the shelf and picking up her notebooks and loose sheets of paper. “Sure, let’s stop by my room to drop all of this off first.” She says and Luz nods and breathes a sigh of relief. She’ll go through her grief on her own time. 

“See you later Bump,” Luz says over her shoulder before opening the door for Amity, a common courtesy more than a duty for her to do. The older man gives her a soft smile and waved goodbye before returning his gaze to the book in his hand. They’re nearly to Amity’s room when a dark skinned boy in a blue cloak quickly opens a door, grabbing Amity and pulling her into the room before slamming the door. 

Amity shouts in surprise and reaches out and Luz shouts her name, going to grab her outstretched hand. “Amity? Amity!” She repeats, hitting her fists against the door. “Okay training, come on, let’s see what I’ve got,” she says to herself, eyes blown wide as she takes a few steps back and rams her shoulder into the door. She does it a few times, but no cigar. It fails to open, which makes sense since the door opened outwards rather than inwards, but Luz didn’t take the time to realize that. 

She looks around hurriedly, the sight of Amity’s papers and pen catching her eyes and holding her gaze. Maybe she could use a spell… No, no she wasn’t allowed to do magic. She couldn’t risk getting caught doing magic, at least not in broad daylight in the castle. Luz sucked in a deep breath and unsheathed her sword, yelling as she made to cut the door down, only to pause when Amity jumped out the door saying “Don’t cut us! We’re coming out!” 

“Princess Amity, they didn’t hurt you did they?” She asks and Amity shakes her head no, a letter clutched in their hand. “Keep it down, you might attract guards,” she says, looking around carefully before pocketing the unsealed envelope and shutting the door behind her. “Who was that, why did they pull you into that room?” Luz questions Amity. 

Amity looks hesitantly at her guard. She was trying to decide if she could trust her. “Luz, are we friends?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some explanations, some old friends, and a sneaky sneaky plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY FRICK I'M SORE 
> 
> Hi, this is coming out so late because I haven't been getting home and getting on my computer to write and edit chapters until eight at night because I've been taking some MMA classes so once again I am begging that you all have mercy on me while I get my crappy writing schedule under control, might update the updating schedules a little bit but if I do I'll put it up on the instagram (Nyankittypug_thatficwriter) and will put it in the description of the stories it will effect! :D

Luz is caught off guard by the question and blinks as she tries to process it. Friends? This day had gone by so fast and it was barely even noon, who just pulled Amity into that room? Why was she asking if they were friends? Why did it matter if they were friends? Yeah, Luz wanted friends, she wanted a friend maybe even more than she wanted freedom at this point, but it would be nice to have been given some time and context. 

Luz thought about all of the fun times she and Amity had had together in the moment she was trying to figure out the question and remember exactly what friends were and what they did. Luz was not meant to have friends, she knew that much. She could remember that from the human realm, people telling her she was a freak and wasn’t allowed to be near them. The same applied to here, she may have been safe under Eda’s care but that got Eda petrified and her group of friends (that’s right, she had had friends before. Eda was her friend. She wanted to take everyone with her because they were friends) split up. Was it safe for people around her to be friends with her? Was it safe for her to have friends?

Just as she was about to answer, Amity seemed to have gone through the thousands of thoughts also racing in her head as she cut off Luz’s unsaid sentence. “That’s the wrong question, ignore that one. Are you trustworthy?” She asks instead, her face flushed with embarrassment and Luz falters as she furrows her eyebrows in contemplative thought once again. “I am trustworthy,” she says. “But?” Amity finishes for her as Luz looks up at her. “I am trustworthy,” Luz repeats, “But I am not always me.” Amity seems to freeze up at this and Luz gives her a smile. “But do you want to know a secret about your mother Princess?” Luz leans in close and Amity falters as she hesitantly nods, the letter clutched in her hand behind her. “You’re mother can’t probe through my memories without casting a spell on me.” Luz leans back and shrugs, “Or without me willingly letting her probe my mind, but I don’t like it when she does that. It’s like when someone moves your stuff and you know they’ve done it but don’t have proof.” Amity nods and gives a little sigh. She knew who the letter was from, it was unmarked but she could smell the fragerantness of the spider-legged petunias she’d be growing right around now (Amity had never liked the spindly vines plant, it creeped her out the way the vines would cluster to form a spider-like shape, and the flowers would grow to look like beady eyes that always made her want to slink away). She waits for a few seconds before nodding to herself and gathering her courage. She could trust Luz the human who had stuck her neck out for her to keep her out of trouble even when being mind controlled, and who had held the spell back to keep herself from fighting against Bump’s on-coming bonk on her noggin’ to keep Amity safe and her life private. 

Luz had even been willing just a minute ago to break down a door to save her, even when she didn’t need saving. She could trust Luz, everything would turn out okay. She was Amity Blight, she was born to make sure everything would be better than okay for herself. Amity opened the door gently but didn’t let Luz peek at all into the room. “Okay, first, promise not to freak out, okay? He was just helping me talk to a friend. Second, keep your hand off your sword, you might scare him.” Luz nods, Amity would have thought Luz looked goofy as she picked her hand up off of her sword hilt and glared at it if she had stayed looking at the girl for a second longer before walking back into the room. 

“Gus, don’t freak out, this is-” 

“LUZ?” Gus’s hood is immediately off as he stares in amazement at the teen standing before him. He hadn’t seen her in so long, and after a few years of hearing nothing and having to see statue Eda every now and then as he helped his father deliver letters he had begun to think his friend was dead. But then Willow found him and told him that she saw a human, a human who looked like Luz and knew her name, and he had gotten his hopes up but wow. Standing before him was the gangly teen he remembered, he’s the same height as her now, and her hair is a little bit longer, like she needs a haircut. There’s a sword strapped to her waist and she’s wearing leather and cloth armor (although he doubts it’d really protect  _ her _ now that he thinks about it).

He’s ecstatic to see her and he runs to pull her into a hug, causing her to freeze up at his touch. While he had been taking her in, she had been trying to place his face. Gus, she knew Gus. But this couldn’t be Gus, he was too tall to be Gus. And he was too old too, fourteen or fifteen years old maybe? Gus didn’t braid beads in his hair, and Gus also didn’t fit his courier robes. 

Luz’s hand instinctively went to her sword as the Not-Gus kept his arms wrapped tightly around her shoulders and hugged her close. “Willow and I have been so worried about you! Everyone else too! Where in the name of the titan have you been all these years?” Luz was frozen though as all she could think was  _ let go of me let go of me let go of me I did nothing wrong what did I do now let go of me let me go what did I do _ . Amity caught Luz’s panicked expression and gently pulls Gus away from the girl. “She...she doesn’t like touching.” Amity explains and Gus looks confused. “But Luz loves hugs,” he responds and motions to the girl who blinks her eyes rapidly and grips her sword for comfort. The entire day had been going by far too fast for her, why couldn’t she have just one slow day? Why had they been going through this hallway anyway? Amity wanted to drop off her notes. They had yet to drop off her notes. That was a task, an unfinished task, a task she could focus on. 

Luz took a deep breath and exhaled. She took a moment to calm her buzzing nerves and calm her racing thoughts. She was okay, no one was going to punish her right now. She was okay. 

This could be Gus, she had to at least entertain the thought. Not everything was some cruel illusion plotted and planned by the empress. Not everything had the emperor looming around the corner placed strategically to catch her. She desperately wished she could be sleeping, even if it meant dangerously dozing off outside of Amity’s room. Everything was better when she was asleep, where she couldn’t ruin anything or mess up a task. 

“You’re Gus?” She asks and he looks over at her, his face falling a little bit. “Yeah, you recognize me, don’t you?” He asks and she looks, really really looks rather than hyper focusing on the differences. “You have the same eyes, and voice, I remember his voice. Your’s is deeper. Um, we gave a house giant legs one time?” She asks, closing her eyes for a moment to gather the memories she had of the lad. He laughs and nods, “Yeah, we were trying to animate this doll from the human realm and accidentally animated the owl house.” 

That causes Luz to open her eyes wide and take a step forward. “The owl house? Describe it to me, please.” She grips his arms tight and he chuckles nervously as she fixes her desperate gaze on him. “Don’t you remember?” He asks, his old friend is spooking him a little with the way she seems so sad, and the bags under her eyes could carry twice the amount of letters his side satchels were meant to hold. She looked like she had been fed, but she still seemed on the skinny side, thin with muscles and very little fat. “N-no no I’ve been losing my memories slowly, Eda, Eda had gray hair right? And Willow liked books about botany? A-and you, you’re Gus?” Luz looks into his eyes closely and he gently touches her arms. “It’s okay Luz, Eda had grey hair, you remember all the weird stuff she’d keep in it?” Luz nodded.

“And Willow still likes books about botany, she can’t wait to tell you all about the new plants she’s discovered. And yeah Luz, I’m Gus.” Luz has tears going down her face as she hiccups and nods, still gripping his arms but no longer out of a violent desperation of the  _ need  _ for him to please please  _ please  _ be someone she still had memories of, now it was out of the fact that he had found her. He had found her and she wasn’t as alone as she was. And if he had found her then she could find him and then she could find the others. They could go home. 

Amity and Gus let Luz cry and hold onto him for a little while before she pulled herself together and let out a big heavy huff. She felt a little lighter, but also a little embarrassed. She hadn’t seen her friend in how long and suddenly her friends (Amity was a friend, she had made up her mind.) now had to sit and watch her as she cried and wasted their time. “Sorry, what’s going on.” She apologizes, wiping her nose and eyes on her uniform sleeve. Amity and Gus share a look before nodding at one another. 

“It’s Willow.” Gus says with a confidant smile, “And she’s got a plan.”


End file.
